New baby

Joanna Louise Ashby arrived on the 1st of March of 2011. She weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 18 inches long. She has a full head of dark hair and is a very sweet baby. She looks very much like her older sister. The kids are very happy to have her home. They always want to hold her or touch her. But they are very good about putting "hanitizer" on before the handle her in any way. Joanna is such a precious bundle. We are very lucky to have her in the family. Her name is very special because of family members that share her name. She has a great aunt Jo Anne, mommy's middle name is Ann, and Louise has been in the family for generations. Both an aunt and great aunt will share that name with her. Names have meaning so we wanted to make Joanna's special.

Grant's party

Grant is now 7 years old and we are finished with all the celebrations. He had more toys than he knows what to do with. We had a family party and a friend party. He wanted an outer space theme party. I ordered some great things from Oriental Trading. We bought the blow up solar system and found we had two Earths and no Neptune, so we had them send out a replacement. David hung them from the ceiling downstairs. During the party I had the kids answer questions about the solar system. So, yes, I am that mom that turned a party into a learning experience. The kids had to stick the head on the alien, throw Transformers bean bags threw holes in space, and had a wonderful time hitting the pinata to get all the candy. We forgot to have the kids throw the mini golf discs. David was going to make them be alien space ships that were coming in for a landing. I always get a 1/2 sheet cake for our birthdays. Grant has a space shuttle that we put on the cake for a decoration. The cake is almost gone one week after the party. I bought inflatable space shuttles for the kids to take home. They all had a great time and enjoyed all the fun things they got to take home. I may overdue things for a kids party but I have a lot of fun putting it all together. I do have pictures but I am terrible about posting any. Grant put together a poster for school and had a week where he got to be the special helper. He is growing up so fast that I have to take time to just watch him and soak it all in.
I don't have to plan another party until May but since I am having a baby before then I am making some preparations already. We know our Lila is going to have some sort of princess party. I found these adorable little bead bags to hand out to the kids who come. This will be Lila's first friend party. Two out of the three birthday's she has had have been in California due to us going on vacation. No vacation planned this year so she is thrilled to invite her little friends over to her house for a party.
So birthday party was a success and we are now looking forward to the arrival of the new baby girl. The name of this girl is still up in the air. We will decide for sure when we see her. We just bought a new car seat because the old one was only supposed to be used for 6 years and we bought it for Grant 7 years ago. Now I just have to get a new dresser and wash the clothes before the baby comes. I will have a few months to get Lila's room ready before the baby will be sharing it with her.

Christmas cookies

I love making Christmas cookies. There are some kinds of cookies that I only make at Christmas time. I must be crazy, but I love doing it. I don't always make them to give away. I have in the past and it was so much work making large batches of cookies. This year I am making most of them just because I want them. I am making peanut butter cookies to take to the ward Christmas party. I plan on making gingerbread cookies, spritzes, biscotti, my grandma Louise's special chocolate cookies, and of course the sugar cookies the kids will help me decorate. I made chocolate chip cookies a few days ago, and I dipped pretzels in white chocolate on Wednesday. I need to make cinnamon rolls, and homemade chocolates. Maybe toffee and caramel corn will be added to the list. I think I might have to go to the store to get enough supplies, even though I always keep certain baking essentials in the house at all times. I know it seems like a lot of stuff to make, but it helps the time go by faster. This is the perfect time of year, since this baby really makes me want desserts. I feel like I can get away with eating said desserts because I am pregnant and I am suppose to gain weight anyway. I just won't know if it is baby weight or dessert weight. There is a certain amount of freedom that comes with that thinking. I hope to get everything made. May the rest of the Christmas preparations go as well.

Christmas gifts

I like to make something every year that I can give out to my friends and family. I found something this year that will be easy and useful. It requires a lot of ribbon. Luckily, Joann's had their holiday ribbon 50% off this last week. I could have saved a fortune, but I just bought twice the amount of ribbon. I wanted to make snowmen out of pavers stone. Problem is the stone I need is a seasonal item and is not carried in the stores right now. I will have to keep it in mind for next year and buy the stones in the spring. I am still at a loss as to what to give to the neighbors. I have the cute jars, I just need something to put in them. I might end up doing candy, but that is so boring and no one really needs more candy at Christmas time. Last year I made pot holders. I put them with a bag of walnuts from my mother's tree. Last year I made pillowcases for my nieces and nephews. Nothing as fun or exciting is coming to mind this year. I may have to go the easy route and make it something store bought. But I have always enjoyed the homemade gifts that I have given and received. I think they mean a bit more because someone has put a little bit of themselves into the present. Now if only I could get Lila to tell me what she really wants for gifts this year. We have a few more weeks before I have to get her something. Here come the holidays.

Tattle tales

I can't stand it when my kids come and tattle on their sibling. A lot of times there is nothing I can do about what happened. They bicker all the time. And I am having a third child to add to the mix? I barely stay sane as things are now. They seem to think they can't clean up after themselves. Bribery doesn't even work with these two. Grant has the day off from school and the trouble began before the sun came up. My kids will be the death of me. Or they will send me to the insane asylum.

Halfway

Twenty weeks have passed in this pregnancy. The ultrasound showed us that our daughter is growing well and looks to be well developed. We don't have a name for this little girl yet, and this is driving me crazy. I try to find things to keep me busy, but I tire quickly. The holidays seem to be looking over me and we haven't even reached Halloween yet. The fact that stores have had Christmas things out since the end of September doesn't help me feel any better. I don't want to think about having to get gifts for people. I want to enjoy getting ready for a good Thanksgiving dinner. I loathe the change in temperatures. I don't look forward to snow. These next 20 weeks are going to be more difficult because of the time of year and being pregnant. I am glad I am halwfay, but I do not look forward to the next 20 weeks.

Baby #3

Well, I got a surprise back at the beginning of July. I will be having a 3rd child at the beginning of March. She will be our second girl. I had to find out at 16 weeks what the gender was. This entire experience is such a surprise, I couldn't wait any longer. My feelings are very mixed about this whole thing. Lila will be almost 4 when this baby comes. I was thinking about my "5 year plan" and it involved possibly finding a part time job. Now that has been pushed back even more. Maybe in 7 or 8 years I'll find something to do during my days while the kids are in school. I have always hated being pregnant. It's a scary time for me because of possible complications. I hope to make it to March without going on bedrest. I don't get morning sickness, but I was exhausted for nearly 12 weeks. I was taking two naps a day. I had all sorts of plans for the summer, but they went out the window because I was tired all the time. My poor kids were bored to tears often. Now that Grant is in school I have more energy, so Lila and I do some fun things during school time. I still get tired and need naps, but not as often as before. I am always congested. I can't sleep if I can't breathe through my nose. I haven't had a good nights sleep for months and I won't have a good nights sleep for many months to come. I find myself bursting into tears because I don't want to be pregnant. Then I feel ungrateful because I should see this as a blessing not a burden. I have friends and family that can't get pregnant. I should be thankful that getting pregnant has never been a problem. I just have to get through another 5 months of this. Then I will have to deal with all the newborn stuff. I guess I'll deal with things as they come. I will search for the good in this situation. But I am still having a hard time with this at the moment.